Niro, an embedded consumer-lending platform has announced the closure of its Series A round of Rs 90 crores ($11 million) through a mix of equity ($8.5 million) and debt ($2.5 million). The Bangalore-based fintech company secured the equity funding from a consortium of investors including Elevar Equity, GMO Venture Partners, Rebright Partners, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance VC and others. Venture debt was funded by Innoven Capital. Previously, Niro raised its seed round of $3.5 million in October 2021, which was led by Elevar Equity.
Founded in 2021, Niro is an embedded lending platform that enables consumer internet platforms to become lending superpowers. Niro’s vision is to empower consumer internet platforms to become providers of competitive, frictionless and innovative credit (and other financial) products for their consumers. By providing customised credit offerings, Niro aims to empower these platforms to drive engagement with and create value for, their end consumers - driving significant revenue growth in the process.
The company has disbursed over 300 crores of loans across about 200 cities in India and has a monthly origination run rate of over 60 crores. With this funding round, Niro aims to expand its partner footprint, product offerings, risk analytics capabilities and bolster its technology layer.
“Sankalp and I are extremely humbled and excited to share news of this fundraise. Raising capital, especially in this environment, is a testament to the success of the Niro thesis which has seen rapid & real validation in a very short span of time. We’re grateful for Elevar’s continued support, and excited to welcome GMO, Rebright Partners, MSIVC, Venture Catalysts and YAN to our journey. We strive to continue to deliver value for our platform partners, lenders and end consumers,” said Aditya Kumar, co-founder and CEO (chief executive officer) of Niro.
“Niro has demonstrated tremendous growth in a short time along with achieving robust risk metrics, near zero CAC, and in-depth partnerships. This model is unique in its effectiveness and is well poised to scale with this round of infusion - we see Niro well on its way to making a significant dent in what is a market of millions of underserved customers, looking for thoughtful credit opportunities to meet their aspirations,” added Jyotsna Krishnan, managing partner, Elevar Equity.
“As GMO, we believe in the founders with solid execution capabilities and a genuine dedication to problem-solving. Aditya and Sankalp, serial entrepreneurs in the space, have demonstrated credentials and founder-market-fit to a great extent. We are honoured to support them by bridging Japan’s capital and India’s fintech ecosystem,” observed Ryu Muramatsu, founding partner, GMO VenturePartners.
